THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Speaker, Madam
President of the Senate, to the Leader of the Opposition, and all the
members of the Senate and House, and ladies and gentlemen here
assembled: Let me begin, Prime Minister, by thanking you, the people of
Canberra and all of Australia for the absolutely tremendous welcome that
Hillary and I and the entire American delegation have received. I know
this is called the Land Down Under, but after only a day, we all feel
like we're on top of the world, and I thank you for that. (Laughter.)

I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you in this
great hall of democracy. Your Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, was
one of the very few world leaders to address our United States Congress
twice. Now, I give you that fact as a point of interest, not a pitch
for a return engagement here. (Laughter.)

Forty-one years ago today -- not today, 41 years ago
this year, here is what he said to our people: "We have, with your
great country, as a result of war as well as of peace, a tie which I
believe to be unbreakable and a degree of affectionate, simple
understanding which I do not believe can be surpassed between any two
countries of the world."

Today, 41 years later, the Prime Minister's insight
still holds. The ties between us span more than 200 years. In 1792, an
American ship named for brotherhood -- the Philadelphia -- arrived at
Port Jackson with supplies that helped to save the colonists from
starvation. Former Prime Minister Frasier noted that the beef that the
Philadelphia carried had been on board for nine months -- (laughter) --
well-cured he called it. (Laughter.)

Well, my friends, two centuries later, our
friendship, tested in war and seasoned in peace, has also become
well-cured. Our people have built bridges of commerce and culture,
friendship and trust, reaching over the greatest expanse of ocean on
Earth. The United States is proud to be Australia's largest foreign
investor and largest trading partner. We are also proud of the wars we
have fought together and the peace we have fought to sustain together.

The great diversity of our ties was born of shared
experience and common values. Our pioneers both settled vast frontiers
and built free nations across entire continents. In one another, I
really believe we see a distant mirror of our better selves --
reflections of liberty and decency, of openness and vitality. In this
century, our bonds have truly been forged in the fires of wars -- war
after war after war. Together we carried liberty's torch in the darkest
nights of the 20th century.

My message to you today is that together we must embrace
the dawn of this new century together and we must make the most of it
together. We carried a torch through the night; now we can create the
dawn our children deserve.

For Australia's strength and sacrifice through these many
struggles, for your fierce love of liberty and your unfailing friendship
to the United States, the American people thank you. And the American
people look forward with you to this new era of freedom and
possibilities. After all, our nations are at peace, our economies are
strong. The ideas we have struggled for -- freedom of religion, speech
and assembly, open markets, tolerance -- they're more and more the
habits of all humanity. For the first time in all history, two-thirds
of all the nations on this Earth and more than half the people alive
today are ruled by governments picked by their own people. The rigid
blocks and barriers that too long defined the world are giving way to an
era of breathtaking expansion of information technology and information.

And because of these things, we now have a chance, greater
than any generation of people who ever lived before us, to give more and
more people the opportunity to realize their God-given potential, to
live their own dreams, not someone else's plan.

But this chance we have is nothing more than that. It is a
chance, not a guarantee. For all its promise, we know this new century
will not be free of peril, and therefore, we know that our freedom still
requires our responsibility. Nations and people still will be tempted
to fight wars for territory, or out of ethnic, religious or racial
hatred.

As I told the American people over and over again during
the recent election campaign, it was literally heartbreaking to me to
think of how much of their time I had to spend dealing with people who
still believe it's all right to murder each other and each other's
children because of their racial, their religious, their ethnic, their
tribal differences.

We must stand against that and the example of how we live
together must be a rebuke to that in the 21st century. (Applause.)

And make no mistake about it, there is a nexus of new
threats -- terrorists, rogue states, international criminals, drug
traffickers. They, too, menace our security, and they will do more of
it in the new century. They will be all the more lethal if they gain
access to weapons of mass destruction, whether nuclear, chemical or
biological.

Because of our size, our strength, our prosperity and the
power of our example, Australia and the United States have a special
responsibility, not only to seize the opportunities, but to move against
the new threats of the 21st century. Together we can reduce even more
of the danger of weapons of mass destruction. We can take the fight to
the terrorists and the drug traffickers. We can extend the reach of
free and fair trade. We can advance democracy around the world. And,
yes, we can prove that free societies can embrace the economic and
social changes, and the ethnic, racial and religious diversity this new
era brings and come out stronger and freer than ever.

The threat of nuclear weapons born a half century ago
finally is diminishing as a new century begins. The United States and
Russia are reducing our arsenals, pointing our weapons away from one
another, working to safeguard nuclear materials and facilities. Every
single Australian should be very proud of the role your country has
played in guiding the world toward a more secure future.

You helped lead the fight to extend the nonproliferation
treaty. Your determined diplomacy brought the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty to reality and the world to the verge of banning all nuclear
testing for all time. Every nation is in your debt for that
achievement. And on behalf, again, of the people of the United States,
I say thank you.

Now we must pursue together our remaining arms control
agenda -- further reductions in Russia's and America's arsenals once
Russia ratifies START II; a chemical weapons convention, so that our
troops never face poison gas in the battlefield and our people never
fall victim to it in a terrorist attack; a stronger biological weapons
convention, so that disease is never used as a weapon of war; a
worldwide ban on land mines, so that all our children can walk with
confidence on the earth beneath them. (Applause.)

As we deal with these challenges to our security we must
recognize the new ones which are emerging and the new approaches they
require. Terrorism, international crime and drug trafficking are forces
of destruction that have no tolerance for national borders. Together we
must show zero tolerance for them. That means putting pressure on rogue
states, not doing business with them. It's very difficult to do
business by day with people who kill innocent civilians by night.

It means giving no aid and quarter to terrorists who
slaughter the innocent and drug traffickers who poison our children. It
means, in short, pursuing a concerted strategy -- intelligence and
police cooperation worldwide, coordinated legal action in every country
to stop money laundering, shut down gray markets for guns and false
documents, and increase of extraditions. It means security coordination
in our airports and airplanes, in giving each in our own nations our law
enforcement officials the tools they need to cooperate and to succeed.

The measure of our people's security includes not only
their physical safety, however, but, as we all know, their economic
well-being. Our two countries have led in opening markets around the
world and we can be pleased with our progress. Through GATT, the WTO,
APEC and literally hundreds of smaller accords, we are moving to extend
the reach of free and fair trade. But we can do more, issue by issue,
agreement by agreement.

I am determined to work with Congress in my second term to
move ahead boldly on market opening initiatives around the world.
Decades from now I want people to say that our generation rose to the
challenge of creating a new, open trading system for the 21st century.
If we do, more people will have good jobs and better lives as they share
in humanity's genius for progress. Over the long-term we can best
advance the security and prosperity we seek by expanding and
strengthening not only trade, but the community of free nations.

The tide of democracy is now running strong and deep.
Consider this: In just the past few weeks the people of Lithuania,
Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Nicaragua and Thailand have freely elected
their leaders -- a prospect literally unimaginable not very long ago.
In my own hemisphere every nation but one has raised freedom's flag. In
central Europe and in Russia, Ukraine and the other New Independent
States the forces of reform have earned our respect and deserve our
continued support.

For the first time since the rise of nation states on the
continent of Europe it is literally conceivable that we have an
opportunity -- a real and tangible opportunity -- to build a continent
that is democratic, undivided and at peace. It has never been possible
before, and together we can achieve it now.

Now, I know that some people on both sides of the Pacific
are concerned that America's continuing involvement with Europe and our
intense renewed involvement with our neighbors in Latin America will
lead to disengagement from the Asia Pacific region. They are wrong.
Mr. Prime Minister, if I could borrow your eloquent phrase -- at least
I'm giving you credit, as we politicians don't often do -- (laughter) --
the United States does not need to choose between our history and our
geography. We need not choose between Europe and Asia. In a global
economy with global security challenges, America must look to the East
no less than to the West. Our security demands it. After all, we
fought three wars here in living memory. The Cold War's last frontier
lies now on the Korean Peninsula. The region as a whole is in the midst
of profound change. So our security demands it.

Our prosperity requires it. One-third of our exports and
more than 2 million American jobs depend upon our trade with Asia. Over
the next decade, Asia's remarkable growth will mean ever-expanding
markets for those who can compete in them. Our future cannot be secure
if Asia's future is in doubt.

As we enter the 21st century, therefore, I say to you that
America not only has been, she is and will remain a Pacific power. We
want America's involvement and influence to provide the stability among
nations which is necessary for the people of the Asia Pacific region to
make the routines of normal life a reality and to spur the economic
progress that will benefit all of us.

To meet those challenges of stability, we are now pursuing
three objectives -- stronger alliances, deeper engagement with China,
and a larger community of democracies. First, we share the view of
almost every nation in Asia that a strong American security presence
remains the bedrock for regional stability. We will maintain about
100,000 troops across the Pacific, just as we maintain about 100,000
troops in Europe. We will keep them well-trained, well-equipped and
well-prepared. We will continue to revitalize our core alliances both
bilaterally and regionally.

These efforts, let me say clearly, are not directed against
any nation. They are intended to advance security and stability for
everyone so that we can grow together and work together, all of us in
the new century.

Our alliance with a democratic, prosperous Japan has been
one of the great achievements of the postwar period. Last spring, after
more than a year's hard study and work, Prime Minister Hashimoto and I
signed a new security charter. Japan's continued support for our
military presence and even closer links between our armed forces will
enable us to deepen our cooperation on behalf of peace and stability in
this region and beyond.

With our close ally in South Korea, we're working to reduce
tensions on the Korean Peninsula that threaten all of northeast Asia.
We must give new momentum now to the four-party peace talks President
Kim and I proposed last spring. And we must continue our work to
dismantle North Korea's frozen nuclear program.

We are reinforcing our security ties with the Philippines
and Thailand, while multiplying the power of our troops through greater
access to regional military facilities.

And finally and simply put, the defense links between the
United States and Australia have never been stronger in peacetime. Mr.
Prime Minister and members of Parliament, the agreements our foreign and
defense ministers signed this summer in Sydney authorized the largest
exercises involving our troops since World War II. American Marines
will soon begin training in northern Australia. And we are deepening
our already strong security cooperation. Today I say, again, with utter
confidence, our alliance is not just for this time, it is for all time.

As we work nation to nation, let us continue to build a new
architecture for regional security as well -- an architecture through
ASEAN that will strengthen our ability to confront common challenges.
Already this effort is helping to diffuse tensions in the South China
Sea and to dispel distrust across the region. We must pursue it to its
full potential.

Our second stabilizing objective is deeper engagement with
China. The direction China takes in the years to come, the way it
defines its greatness in the future will help to decide whether the next
century is one of conflict or cooperation. The emergence of a stable,
an open, a prosperous China, a strong China confident of its place in
the world and willing to assume its responsibilities as a great nation
is in our deepest interest.

True cooperation is both possible and plainly productive.
We work closely with China to extend a nuclear nonproliferation treaty
and to secure the passage of a comprehensive test ban treaty. We joined
to shore up peace in Cambodia and increased stability on the Korean
Peninsula. We're making progress together on some tough issues, from
nuclear technology to intellectual property rights.

The United States and China will continue to have important
differences, especially in the area of human rights, and we will
continue to discuss them candidly. But by working together where
possible and dealing with our differences openly and respectfully when
necessary, we can deepen our dialogue and add to Asia's stability. I
look forward to doing just that when I meet for the fourth time with
President Jiang in the Philippines next week.

The third part of our work for stability is support for the
advance of democracy. Our two nations know that democracy comes in many
forms. Neither of us seeks to impose our own vision on others, but we
also share the conviction that some basic rights are universal. And we
have to decide whether we believe that. I believe everywhere people
aspire to be treated with dignity, to give voice to their opinions, to
choose their own leaders. We have seen these dreams realized in the
democratic odyssey of the Asia Pacific from Japan to South Korea to
Thailand and Mongolia.

In this century we have sacrificed many of our sons and
daughters, your nation and ours, for the cause of freedom. And so we
must continue to speak for the cause of freedom in this new age of
commerce and trade and technology. We must push repressive regimes in
places like Burma to pursue reconciliation and genuine political
dialogue. We must assist new democracies like Cambodia by encouraging
the development of political parties and institutions.

We know that the freer and better educated people are, the
more creative they become, the better able they are to compete, the more
able they are to satisfy each other's deepest wants and needs. We can
look at economic vitality of the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan and South
Korea to see the proof of this assertion.

As stability extends its reach and strengthens its grip,
the Pacific may finally be able to live up to its name. In Cambodia
farmers once again till the land that had become horrific killing
fields. In Vietnam, schoolchildren can worry more about their exams
than about the war. From Bangkok to Manila, power is no longer used
against the people; it is in the hands of the people.

A generation ago, it was hard to imagine how rapidly
freedom could come to these nations, how rapidly their economies could
grow. But freed from the threat of war, unleashed by their newfound
freedoms, the people of this region have built among the greatest
success stories the world has ever seen. They have transformed economic
wastelands into powerful engines for growth, enriched the lives of
millions by harnessing the technology of change. Today, the economies
of the Asia Pacific are clearly the most dynamic on Earth.

More than 7 million Americans trace their roots to Asia.
Five of our states touch the Pacific. We are inexorably linked to the
promise of the Asia Pacific region. That's why in the first year of my
term I sought to elevate the APEC forum that began right here in
Canberra into the first-ever meeting of Asian Pacific leaders. At our
inaugural summit in Seattle, working closely with your former Prime
Minister, Paul Keating, we agreed to give this extraordinarily diverse
region a common goal -- to work as a community of nations committed to
economic integration.

A year later in Jakarta we made a historic commitment --
free trade and investment in the region by 2020. Some said that was an
illusory vision. But already that vision is becoming a blueprint, a
blueprint taking shape as concrete commitments. At next week's leaders
meeting Prime Minister Howard and I hope and expect that APEC will give
a boost to specific market opening initiatives. For me, I hope that
means unshackling trade in computers, semiconductors and
telecommunications, the high-tech sectors of the future. We have an
opportunity to set an example for the rest of the world and we ought to
seize it. If we do, the nations of the region will benefit, those who
provide the services and those who receive them.

Progress, after all, is not yet everyone's partner, and we
have a responsibility to open the doors of opportunity to those who
remain outside the global economy. For example, some two-thirds of the
people on our planet have no access to a telephone. I found that hard
to believe when I saw so many of your fellow citizens with their cell
phones in their hands as I drove up and down your streets. (Laugher.)

More than half the people of the world are two days walk
from a telephone. They are totally disconnected from the communications
and information revolution that is the present vehicle for human
progress and possibility. If we add their creative energies to the mix
which now exists, of course, they will gain skills and jobs and greater
wealth, but we also will benefit from the higher growth rates, from the
expanded markets and from the increasing likelihood that those people
will find peaceful, rather than warlike ways, to release their energies.
We can do this if we have the courage not to retreat, but instead, to
compete.

At this year's meeting at APEC and everywhere I go, I will
also deliver again a simple, loud and clear message: The United States
is more determined than ever to create an Asian Pacific community of
shared efforts, shared benefits and shared destiny. The interests that
compel our engagement have grown, not shrunk, and so has our commitment
to a Pacific future.

We know from our past that we can succeed, that we are
equal to the difficulties ahead. I began today by quoting Prime
Minister Menzies, so let me conclude by returning to his words. He
said, "The world needs every scrap of democratic strength that can be
found in it because nobody, however optimistic, need underestimate the
measure or the character of danger that always confronts us. It is not
merely our privilege to be strong, it is our duty to be strong.

The world needs Australia. The world needs the United
States. It needs us together as partners and friends and allies. We
have stood together in the hard times as partners and friends. Let us
stand together and work together now for a new future of peace and
possibility that extends to our children and our grandchildren and to
all the children of the world.

May God bless Australia, the United States and the great
friendship between our nations. Thank you very much. (Applause.)